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The Bell V-280 Valor appears to have won the contract to replace the UH-60 in Army service.
This will be the second tilt-rotor accepted into military service.
I expect to see more of this as time goes on.
I eagerly await the attack version as the utility birds outrun and outrange the Apache.
Commercial acceptance of the tilt-rotor concept is probably close, I've seen at least two proposals for executive tilt-rotor ideas.
This tickles a memory from Bayou Renaissance Man IIRR-
ReplyDeleteHe was talking about another tilt rotor and how they need more open space (in the jungle) than a normal chopper needs and in his African experience, it makes a difference.
There's room for both, but the way the .GOV likes to go all in on the newest Shiny Thing, I'd bet the helo is on it's way out as a mainstream weapons platform.
Don't pay him too much mind about vertical insertions and the size of the birds. I feel like every time he pontificates on such matters I hear from others who were in the same area contradicting his wisdom. Infantry officers from the Rhodesian diaspora most especially.
DeleteThe Army and USMC have been using much larger choppers than anything South Africa has ever owned in jungles for decades.
The CH-47 takes up a LOT more space than the V-280 will.
The V-280 is barely more than the Blackhawk's foot print amazingly enough.
The Leonardo, formerly AgustaWestland, AW609, formerly the Bell/Agusta BA609 is, finally, expected to enter service next year just 20 years since first flight.
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